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Yes, the last part of the Variations is the best, and Lucile Lawrence insisted that her students learn the whole thing, which I performed twice at recent Harp Festivals of Philadelphia.
Do you know where Marjo Breusing is these days?
I believe that they are not playing the Sparnon arrangement, but one done for the group, I think by Virginia Woerner Hatter.
I’m only interested in publishing a quality book. I will be setting up all the contents myself, but I want a real page size and binding, if possible. At the very least, my local printer can do it on 18 X 12 sheets with saddle stitching. Doing it cheapo at Kinko is nogo. I won’t buy music with ring binding or any of that crap. It tears the other music and doesn’t last. You can’t beat the old ways. Another local printer will do 19 x 14 or something. The problem is finding someone to sew the binding.
I am preparing a collection for publication, and printing, if I do more than 20 copies, will be around $200 plus set-up charges, so more like $250, and then I have to find a way to promote them so people know they exist, and have them actually part with $25-30 to hopefully cover my printing and other expenses. And harpists do not buy music they way that they should. My three publications were all submitted to the Journal for new publications and have never been listed. It’s a dismal picture. So, buy music, even if you don’t necessarily need it. It’s the only way to keep the ball rolling. Years ago, Don Henry would tell me the only way he could keep publishing music was by selling accessories. There are thousands of harpists in this country, and if each one bought 20 different pieces of music a year, that would be a sizeable market. What is really sad is that you have to pay through the nose to make a cd, to do a debut recital, to publish music, and it shouldn’t be that way, but in this country, it has been that way since the 1910s. And there are far too many people waiting to take your money to “help” you get ahead.
Those of you who are well off should seriously consider sponsoring another harpist who is not, to equalize opportunities for all. How many harpists can come from a poor background and have a chance at a career?
I think that is asking for trouble. The management can say if a blue harp is inappropriate, if you have another option.
I think you are on the right track. If you linger on the appoggiaturas, they may start to sound right. They are very expressive. The German edition calls these Sonatines. Are they called Sonates in the French edition? You are about right on the dates of ornamentation. Mostly, it is a question of style and function. Is it a grace note or an appoggiatura? Well, it depends on what is happening harmonically. If it makes no difference at all, it may be a grace note. They seem to be most common in triple-metre rondos. In a slow movement, they are almost certainly on the beat, taking their rhythmic value from the following note. You may not have heard them played that way before, but it should be right. I have a three-movement sonata by Naderman that clearly indicates the classical style of ornamentation, on the beat. In that third movement, I would play them on the beat and accent the dissonant upper note and give it a tenuto and diminuendo as it resolves on the third note.
One thought is, if he wrote chords with a sixth on the bottom for the left hand, like c-a-c-f, you can leave out the higher c, the doubled bass note so you can easily play it 124. He did that a lot in the Sea Symphony.
Yes, I have pondered that myself, for building strength, and there are surprisingly few solos that are basically all chords. The Bach-Grandjany etudes offer a few, two adagios and a bourree. There is the original Bach-Salzedo Bourree and Salzedo’s Londonderry Air, some of his Christmas pieces and to extremes, the Prelude Fatidique, Bolero and Recessional. Dewey Owens’s Bach Chaconne is fairly chordal. Gaubert’s Sarabande also, but those are concert solos. It’s a short list. The Pavane in Solos for the Harp Player is of course, there as well as some Corelli pieces.
Yes, I have pondered that myself, for building strength, and there are surprisingly few solos that are basically all chords. The Bach-Grandjany etudes offer a few, two adagios and a bourree. There is the original Bach-Salzedo Bourree and Salzedo’s Londonderry Air, some of his Christmas pieces and to extremes, the Prelude Fatidique, Bolero and Recessional. Dewey Owens’s Bach Chaconne is fairly chordal. Gaubert’s Sarabande also, but those are concert solos. It’s a short list. The Pavane in Solos for the Harp Player is of course, there as well as some Corelli pieces.
I would add the Pathfinder to the Harp by Lucile Lawrence and Carlos Salzedo, pedal or lever harp, which uses simple but modern music, not as difficult as that in the Method for the Harp. The Art of Modulating is good for the third year or so, to teach pedal sight reading, and it has some excellent solos in it as well. I, too, like Betty Paret’s first book. I have never explored her other material. It was the same for me with recorder books, I liked the ones with a lot of folk songs and baroque music. Purcell for the Harp by Dewey Owens is a good collection of fairly easy solos.
I would add the Pathfinder to the Harp by Lucile Lawrence and Carlos Salzedo, pedal or lever harp, which uses simple but modern music, not as difficult as that in the Method for the Harp. The Art of Modulating is good for the third year or so, to teach pedal sight reading, and it has some excellent solos in it as well. I, too, like Betty Paret’s first book. I have never explored her other material. It was the same for me with recorder books, I liked the ones with a lot of folk songs and baroque music. Purcell for the Harp by Dewey Owens is a good collection of fairly easy solos.
I think the Salzedo edition is the most impressive, as it is quite elaborate and has a smashing cadenza, very showy and brilliant. Yolanda Kondonassis was on the Young People’s Concerts with Leonard Bernstein playing it.
I do not believe in mixing editions and cadenzas at all. The Grandjany edition is very warm and French 19th century sounding, which has its charm. I think you should consider which one your teacher can teach the best.
For example, I can teach the Lawrence or Salzedo best because I know them well, and I have not played the Grandjany edition very much, so I would have less to teach with it. I can coach it, but that’s not quite the same as having it in your fingers.
The Lawrence edition is the most historically apt and stylistic of these editions for pedal harp. It keeps some of the voicings and color and phrasing from the Salzedo, but has appropriate ornaments and touches. It does not have a big cadenza, though. It is not nearly as elaborate. I do not find it any easier to play because of that. It is hard music, however you do it. In a way, I think the Grandjany might be the easier, if you are comfortable with his fingerings and chords. He had big fingers. I don’t know the McDonald at all. You can also do an unedited edition from the original score. If you choose that option, I have an original, period-style cadenza you could use.
It also depends which competition you are entering.
I don’t mean that as a tirade, nor as a rebuke, but as a guideline to being what most informed people would call a substantive musician.
How does this reflect on the plethora of publications by players of all levels? I saw a website by harpers who can just barely play, and they have cds, books, products galore. I’d like to say leave it to the experts, but can they afford it all?
Since I published two pieces, I sold maybe a dozen copies, maybe I barely covered the printing costs, and the dealer who took several copies apparently threw them out.
